>> it's not often we wake up to the news that stuns the world, but this morning, we did. >> pope benedict is resigning. tonight we're still trying to get our minds around just what this all means for the catholic church and the world stage upon which the pope wields such vast influence. for the last six centuries, the catholic church chose a new pope as it also mourned the death of an old one. not this time. pope benedict issued his stunning retirement notice, saying in part i have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me. >> in centuries past, popes didn't live to this age. they died in their jobs. now the medicine has the ability to keep people going

physically a lot longer than they may have the strength to do what is the most gruel jobs in the world. >> usa today reporter says with the pope stepping down at the end of the month, the college of cardinals is already lining up possible successors. according to retired american catholic the church will be looking for a new pope with perhaps the combination of the qualities it liked in the last two. >> i think they'll be looking for men who would have some of the wisdom of the pope benedict and some of the charisma of pope john ii. >> decreasing membership in the u.s. and europe and sex scandals, which may be why the pope may be from somewhere else. >> the church is exploding in growth, particularly in africa and certainly about half of the world's catholic live in latin

america. i think there are a number of strong candidates from those two continents and also asia as well. >> again, kathy grossman's short list of popes includes three italians and a canadian. front-runners? there are none. a lot of men to choose from but not a lot of time in which to do it. the church says expect your new pope by easter sunday, march 31st. about the only person not surprised by this, the pope's brother, george. the washington post quotes him as saying pope benedict told him of his plans months ago. tonight police need your help to find a man who sexual assaulted a teenage girl. it happened in the 3200 block of wheeler road in southeast d.c. the girl was walking when a man pulled her into an alley at gunpoint and attacked her. the suspect then took off in a dark blue four-door car. police are asking anyone with information to give them a call. and talk about a rough

ride. check this out. a tree crashed on to the roof of a metro bus this evening. this is the intersection of 16th and spring in northwesd.c. that bus was stopped at a light when a tree came crashing down. 30 people were on that bus. luckily, none of them were hurt. there are shocking new details about the death of an infant girl allegedly at the hands of her 14-year-old brother. all of this revealed in the boy's first court appearance today in montgomery county. that's where scott broom was tonight, as much of the focus is on the age of the accused killer. >> reporter: the suspect in this case, only an 8th grader. he remains charged as an adult tonight in the death of his 7- month-old sister who officials revealed today was also covered in insect bites. jonathan agilles was a good student, prosecutors say, who night after night watched his younger siblings while his mom worked in an overnight job, then got up and went to school

himself. early last friday, police were called to this apartment in white oak where he they found the 14-year-old boy's 7-month- old sister dead. jonathan told them he held his hand over her mouth to stop her crying and left her restrained in a car seat. today prosecutors revealed the shocking source of injuries on the little girl. >> additionally sad aspect of this is this particular apartment was infested with bugs. and bugs attacked this child after she died. >> reporter: today, he was ordered to be held in a juvenile facility while the cour determine whether to prosecute him as an adult. neighbors here say he's too young to send to an adult prison but was also too young to be left alone to watch little children overnight. >> yeah, it's very sad. >> leaving a 14-year-old child would be a hard decision to me, but she had to make some decision, and unfortunately, no one thought it would end up

like that. >> the mother in this case has not been charged with any crime, but she is under the scrutiny of social services officials. she is also the mother of a 3- year-old daughter who was home here in this bug-infested apartment when the 7-month-old died. in white oak, scott broom, wusa 9. >> now, although the teen is being charged as an adult, that could change. a judge will make the final decision. therefore, wusa 9 has made the decision to not show his picture at this time. derek? hundreds of tips have been pouring in, but the investigators have still not caught up with the ex-los angeles police officer christopher dorner, the man accused of killing three people in a revenge plot that targeted the l.a. police department. now there's a million dollar reward out there and folks are warning dorner is extremely dangerous. tonight at 11:00, the little boy kidnapped from the school bus and held hostage for a week is now going to be on

dr. phil. the kindergartener named nathan was held hostage for nearly a week. the fbi burst in there and killed the guy who took him, jimmy lee dykes and rescued him. you can see it right here on wusa 9 at 4:00. something else you can see right here tomorrow night is president obama's state of the union address. mr. obama is expected to focus on the economy. democrats and republicans say they are anxious to hear the president's plan to get more people back to work during this second term. >> the sooner we begin to address our fiscal problem, i think the sooner the economy will begin to improve. >> the president is also expected to ask congress to invest more in education, clean energy and repairing the nation's crumbling roads and bridges. he'll take his state of the union message on the road later this week with stops in asheville, north carolina, atlanta and chicago. musician and gun advocate

ted nugent is making the trip to d.c. for the state of the union address. he'll be the guest of steve stockman. he's been outspoken in his support for the national rifle association and his dislike of the president. he was investigated by the secret service last year after saying if president obama were re-elected, he would, quote, either be dead or in jail. stockman said he is excited to sit nugent next to him and is pretty sure he'll have a lot to say after the address. parents of the chicago shooting victim will also be at the state of the union. the honor student was gunned down days after she marched at president obama's inauguration. tonight two game members have been charged with her murder. president obama awarded the medal of honor today to an army staff sergeant, recognized for his actions during a deadly attack on his unit at a remote

out post in 2009. more than half of the soldiers were killed or wounded in the contingent, including him. he's the fourth to get the highest decoration for actions in afghanistan or iraq. ♪ ♪ and the memorial at cowboys stadium for retired navy seal chris kyle was just huge. so big that's why they put it at the stadium. he was perhaps the deadliest sniper in american military history and was shot and killed just nine days ago. another iraqi war vet is charged with killing him. kyle became famous for his best- selling book, american sniper. new at 11:00, the website, the hill reports that on wednesday the white house will issue an executive order aimed at boosting the nation's defenses against cyber attacks. this order would set up a voluntary program for companies like power plants, refineries and water treatment centers. under it those companies would receive classified info on cyber threats and share

suspected messages for fending off the attacks. nobody wants to be stranded at sea but that is the reality for folks aboard the triumph tonight. operated by carnival cruise, the engine caught fire, conked out yesterday leaving the ship adrift in the gulf of mexico. another carnival ship arrived today with plenty of food and supplies and tugboats are on their way to tow the vessel to alabama. you know, online dating can be tricky, but stick around, because our debra alfarone has five tips to help you get a date by valentine's day, deb. she's going to help you. she's doing a live chat right now on our website. how much salt did you have today? if you're like most americans the answer is too much. next we'll tell you the changes some companies are making. they want you to live longer and eat a little less salt. >> meteorologist topper shutt.

a light jacket, sunglasses will take care of you. temperatures 36 to 44. 36 to 42 at 7:00. only 40 to 45 at 9:00. so not that cold of a start. we'll come back, talk about the finish and we'll talk

some breaking news out of

north korea p. a u.n. diplomat says north korea just conducted a nuclear test. the u.s. geological survey says it's detected a 4.9 earthquake in north korea and that could indicate such a test. they've been vowing to test long range rockets in defiance of u.n. sanctions. a new study confirms what we've known for a long time. we eat too much salt. package and restaurant foods are to blame for almost 80% of the salt in our diet. now many foods are getting an overhaul after a nationwide healthier initiative. 21 food mpand subway announce that they have lowered the salt in their products. >> lowering sodium is really the goal that you want to have to lower blood pressure and then prevent stroke, renal disease, heart attacks. >> and yes, derek, your food

will still taste good. >> i don't know about that. >> without all that salt. most people consume a teaspoon of salt a day, more than double of the amount recommended. new research from the university of california, san francisco, shows as many as half a million lives would be saved over ten years if we all reduced our salt by 40%. >> all right. >> something to do. >> something to do. all right, valentine's day is just three days away. for all the single ladies out there, listen to this. d.c. is considered one of the most advantageous dating cities for singles. >> lucky for you we've got an expert on how to tip the scales in your favor. debra alfarone helps you hop online to find love the smart way. >> which one you want first, the bad news? ladies, you outnumber single men in the district. but the next minute and a half, i'm going to give you five tips that can help you put yourself ahead of the back. maybe even land a date for valentine's day. >> it's not something our moms taught us when we were growing

up. it's a new skill you need to learn. >> reporter: lori davis' job is to make your online dating profile the best it can be. >> i figure when you hear red, you think feisty and exciting. >> reporter: that single mom, promotions producer at wusa 9. we asked davis to look over her profile. carrie starts off with she's a typical red head. >> you never want to describe yourself as typical, because you want to stand out from the rest of the women on the screen. >> reporter: that's tip one. stand out and be specific about it. >> reporter: davis says it makes it easy for someone to write to you. and ladies, tip two. the old rules don't apply. women not only can write to men, they should. >> sometimes women just feel like they don't to be the first one to reach out, but it's really important, because you never want technology to get in your way if you're on page 10

of his search results and he only looks at the first 5, he might not even come across you. >> do you want to send that message to people? >> i do, but i don't know what to say. i don't know what the first line is. if i read a profile and thought he was attractive or thought, i really like his profile. now what do i say? >> reporter: that leads us to tip 3. crafting the e-mail. >> keep it short and then the question. >> reporter: back to carrie's profile and that great profile pick of her laughing. dana says there's a problem with that. tip 4. >> you can't see her very clearly. her sunglasses are on. that's a huge no-no. you never want to disguise yourself too much. you want to show your man what you look like and show what you look like in different scenarios, too. >> reporter: davis says up load four to 7 pictures total, no more. make sure one is a full body shot. make them fun. show them in your real life like these new pictures of carrie. tip 5 is for when you find

someone you like. >> he's cute. >> what's the first thing you should do? >> the most important thing on dating is getting off line. that's where everything is going to happen. >> reporter: together we rewrote carrie's profile. she wrote i'm a fiery and fun red head. no more talk of typical. she mentions the singer pink, the movie say anything and how she makes killer brownies. look, no pictures, but still trepidation. >> i can meet you in a grocery store and we can talk for 20 minutes, i can be great and witty. get online and i'm like, no clue what to write to start off anything. >> reporter: we gave carrie davis' book, love at first click, which tells how to give good e-mails. armed with the new tool, carrie hops online. >> before there was little traffic on that one. now i'm having more visitors and more e-mail messages from people. so it's definitely jumped up. >> reporter: you know, this is a really fun story to actually do, because carrie is so much fun. >> you guys know her.

she's just a barrel of fun and great energy. here's the one thing, though. don't take it personally when someone doesn't e-mail you back. that's the thing. >> yeah. >> it's hard on do. it really is. >> i did my share of online dating back in the day and i've got to tell you, a lot of one dates. >> a dollar for how many second dates you had, how many dollars would you have? >> about three. it's a tough world. glad to be out of the game. >> we are online because a lot of people need some help. we're online and we have lori davis and i'll help answer all your online dating questions in our live chat. go to wusa9.com, click on the top story there and type away. we'll help you find love. >> carrie is a big catch. >> derek's number one tip was not have a hunch back. >> that hurts. if you like the movie avengers, that is a big step in the right direction. >> i'm out. i've got something to do. >> guys are who you're trying to appeal to. just saying. >> this is true, but the women

won't know anything about it. >> oh, okay. >> i'm out. i have some people to help. thank you very much. >> say goodbye. all right, we've got a clarification tonight from last night at 11 p.m. news. in our post grammy show i noticed i had seen tweets accusing jack white of using profanity during his performance. however after a thorough review, cbs says that was not the case. in a statement given to the hollywood reporter, a spokesman said that cbs had editors listen multiple times on state- of-the-art equipment. in fact, cbs was so confident that no bad language was used, they reaired white's song in the west coast feed of the grammys. so there you go. whole story. >> i can sleep tonight. >> yeah, you were really sweating about that, weren't you? you were having a tough time with that. 54 today. that's 10 degrees above average. by the way, i tweeted this out earlier this morning. today's record low, 15 below. that's as cold as it's ever been in the nation's capital on

record. only 120 years but that's what we've got. a live look outside on our live michael & son weather cam. it's still not cold. it's still 53. dew point 46. the winds switched a little bit out of the west. they'll pick up a little out of the northwest at about 10:15. here's a -- at about 10 to 15. we can say goodbye to this system which is now gone. we're watching all the moisture down in the south. for tuesday, this will stay to the south, pretty good rain going through the deep south now. alabama and back into georgia. as far as we're concerned tomorrow, we're okay. by wednesday though, another system comes from the south and it will come back up to get us. in the meantime we've cleared. i was worried earlier about the southern maryland, st. mary's county. they appeared as well. i think really a pretty much terrific tuesday from mountains to the coast. dry and just a chilly morning commute. grab your shades. just chilly tomorrow night. temperatures tomorrow night will struggle to get below freezing even in the suburbs.

the rain to change to snow by evening. better chance for rain going to snow on wednesday night. clear, breezy, chilly tonight. 36 to 42. no one gets below freezing tonight. winds northwest at 10 to 15. by morning, plenty of sunshine. breezy and chilly. 30s and 40s. winds northwest at 10 to 15. a little tiny wind chill for the kids at the bus stop. and then by afternoon, mostly sunny, breezy, beautiful. high temperatures low 50s. we cannot argue with that. winds northwesterly at 10 to 15. a little bit gusty. sunshine in oakland tomorrow. 36. 44 in cumberland. upper 40s in hagerstown. you guys were in the 60s today. 50 at winchester and culpeper. 50 in warrenton. 51 in manassas and fairfax. low 50s downtown. into southern maryland, sunshine, low 50s. with the breezes there is a small craft advisory for the bay until 6:00 p.m. tomorrow. next three days, green tomorrow, no worries.

terrific tuesday. yellow alert for wednesday. light rain maybe to snow by evening. better chance for snow at night. we'll not get below freezing downtown. only 33 wednesday night. thursday sunshine. temperatures in the upper 40s to near 50. next seven days, looks like sunshine on friday. a little bit cooler, back in the mid-40s. then arctic air plunges southward. we're still trying to figure out where the storm will develop. snow is possible saturday night into sunday morning. it gets very cold and stays cold into next week. and we'll keep a sharp eye on that. we'll watch wednesday night. could be a conversational snow wednesday night. >> at least you have something to talk about. >> something. mighty wizards. >> mighty wizards. >> didn't think i would use those two words together any time soon. >> the wizards have become watchable. they have performances to watch. they go four in a row. we have highlights in tonight's game plus big

national pitchers and catchers don't officially have to report to spring training

until tomorrow but guys like stephen strasbourg getting a start today. he said he's over last year's drama, ready to move forward. why wouldn't he? this is one of the most anticipated seasons yet. we here at wusa 9 are excited to be in the middle of it all. we partnered up with massive and the nationals is will air 20 of their games this season, including opening day. our general manager says this center is a win-win for everybody, especially the fans. >> we have a core viewer and a core audience we want to speak to on a full-time basis and we feel that baseball works within that. it's a great family event and great event for people. we think it works well for our programming and the nationals are hot, so we're really excited to have them on our air. >> nationals open their season april 1st when they host the miami marlins. you can see the game on wusa 9, plus we'll bring you live coverage of all the excitement following the game. say it ain't so. the wizards are streaking.

heading into tonight, washington held eight straight opponents to over 100 points. they have a winning record since john wall returned to the lineup. going for their fourth straight win tonight. bradley beale back from a wrist injury, huge tonight for the rookie career. high 28 points. in all, four guys with double- doubles tonight. wizards win the fourth in a row for the first time this season. to the college game, georgetown capitalized defensively. a big night for porter, 21 points, 7 rebounds. the hoyas win their sixth straight game, 63-55 and move into a tie for second in the big east. to the ladies game. terps winless at duke as head coach up 7. on the break,

chelsea gray had 28 points. brenda frees picks up two technical fouls and got ejected after that play. 71-56. and a bonus tonight, high school basketball. dulles at georgetown visitation. a double team. nice dish to belton for the 2. they couldn't stop visitation tonight. a little good ball movement with the easy layup. visitation wins 75-58. they came back to pull that one off. >> do we know why brenda frees got tossed out? >> just lots of yelling at the refs. >> serious exchange going on, that video. >> brenda gets a little heated. >> animated. sometimes you need that. >> yeah, but she said afterwards she's really

>> well, we hope you got some dating help from debra alfarone, in you needed it. >> all right. that's it for us. don't forget we're always on at wusa9.com. letterman's next. good night.